Author: Publisher: ISBN: 9781457871603 Category : Languages : en Pages : 210
Book Description
This third annual report continues the effort to provide data and analysis so the Department of Defense (DOD) can see how it is doing, measure the effectiveness of ongoing efforts to improve acquisition, and learn from past experience. Contents: (1) background material on acquisition, spending levels and trends, and general perspectives on measuring institutional performance; (2) analysis on outputs and outcomes of the defense acquisition system; (3) new analysis on broader factors that influence acquisition outcomes; (4) selected input and process measures, including the acquisition workforce improvements and incentives, bid-protest rates, usage of Lowest-Price, Technically Acceptable (LPTA) for selecting contracted services, performance relative to competition and small-business goals, and preliminary results on government execution costs. Figures and tables. This is a print on demand report.
Author: United States Government US Army Publisher: CreateSpace ISBN: 9781492187127 Category : Languages : en Pages : 126
Book Description
While the United States achieves its national security missions by equipping its military forces with the best weapons systems in the world, questions continue about the performance of the defense acquisition system. How effective is it? How can that effectiveness be objectively measured? Can we use those measures to affect behaviors with appropriate incentives or determine which policies and procedures improve results and which turn out to be misguided?Answering these questions requires more than opinion. It requires analysis of unbiased data to discover insights into underlying effects. These, in turn, will inform better policy and programmatic decisions.This is the first in a series of planned annual reports on the performance of the defense acquisition system-its programs, institutions, workforce, managers, executives, and industrial partners.By using objective data and analysis to measure performance, these reports will identify underlying drivers and inform future decisions on programs, policies, and processes.This first report focuses primarily on performance related to Major Defense Acquisition Programs (MDAPs). The report focuses on more in-depth indicators of system outcomes, particularly with respect to cost and schedule, and does so by looking at various institutional trends.* How does the portfolio of major programs perform over time? What has changed, how, and by how much?* Are there differences associated with leadership?* Are there differences among DoD organizations?* Are there differences among our industrial partners?This report also reflects results to date from the compliance of the Department of Defense (DoD) with the Improve Acquisition Act of 2010 on performance assessments of the defense acquisition system. While similarly motivated, our efforts will go beyond the specifics of this act to seek additional insights for improving the performance of the defense acquisition system.In addition, this study will be used in part to fulfill a recent request from the Office of Management and Budget for an evidence-based analytic study on acquisition performance.Readily available data allowed us to provide historical baselines on acquisition performance and some initial insights into whether performance has, or has not, improved recently. They also demonstrate that it can take many years to see the results of new policies, making it even more important to test and inform those policies. Although existing data can be effectively leveraged to improve our understanding, a lesson learned is that gaps remain; therefore, I initiated a strategic initiative to identify those key data gaps and begin selective collection of new data for future analysis. That work will continue, and will inform future reports.Since this initial report focuses primarily on analyzing MDAP development and early production information, it cannot be considered a complete picture of the entire acquisition system. Future reports will delve into areas such as contracting, acquisition of services, technology development, industrial base concerns, etc.Value obtained in acquisition is a balance of costs, benefits, and prudent risks. Risks are a fact of life in acquiring the kinds of products our warfighters need, and these risks must be objectively managed. Additionally, demands and threats do change in both the short and long term, so the acquisition system must be able to respond. In some cases, cost growth results from prudent changes in quantity or capability of acquired systems. Our ultimate measure of performance is providing effective systems to the warfighter that are suitable for fielding, at costs that are affordable, while ensuring taxpayers' money is spent as productively as possible. Only through rigorous analysis and clear reporting will we be able to separate and account for acceptable and unacceptable types of cost growth, informing our discussions within DoD, with Congress, our Allies, and the American public.
Author: Jesse Ellman Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield ISBN: 1442280123 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 141
Book Description
This report is the second in an annual series examining trends in what the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is buying, how DoD is buying it, and from whom DoD is buying. This year’s study looks in depth at issues in research and development, acquisition reform in the FY2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), performance of the defense acquisition system, the future of cooperative International Joint Development Programs, and major trends apparent in the activities of the major defense components. By combining detailed policy and data analysis, the study provides a comprehensive overview of the current and future outlook for defense acquisition.
Author: Irv Blickstein Publisher: RAND Corporation ISBN: 9780833059277 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 148
Book Description
Congressional concern with cost overruns, or breaches, in several major defense acquisition programs led the authors, in a partnership with the Performance Assessments and Root Cause Analysis Office in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, to investigate root causes by examining program reviews, analyzing data, participating in contractor briefings, and holding meetings with diverse stakeholders.
Author: Rhys McCormick Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield ISBN: 1538140225 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 70
Book Description
With the advent of the information age, both commercial industry and the Department of Defense are moving towards complex R&D-intensive systems over the simpler, mass-produced systems of the industrial age. This CSIS report analyzes the historical trends in the relationship of production costs to development costs in complex acquisition programs. To understand this phenomenon, the study team examines it at two different levels. The first is the macro investment level where portfolio management trade-offs are made between aggregate development and procurement and between programs. The second level is individual programs where the ambitions of the program and the underlying technology shape the resources required for a program to complete development.
Author: United States Government Accountability Office Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform ISBN: 9781977579959 Category : Languages : en Pages : 210
Book Description
This is GAO's annual assessment of DOD major weapon system acquisitions, an area on GAO's high-risk list. DOD and Congress have taken meaningful steps to improve the acquisition of major weapon systems, yet programs continue to experience cost and schedule overruns. Further, GAO has emphasized the need to sustain the implementation of acquisition reforms and for programs to complete developmental testing before beginning production, thereby avoiding concurrency and its associated cost and schedule growth. With the continuing budgetary pressures, DOD cannot afford to miss opportunities to address inefficiencies in these programs to free up resources for higher priority needs. The joint explanatory statement to the DOD Appropriations Act, 2009 includes a provision for GAO to annually review DOD's portfolio of weapon systems. This report includes observations on (1) the cost and schedule performance of DOD's 2015 portfolio of 79 major defense acquisition programs; (2) the knowledge attained at key junctures in the acquisition process for 43 programs that were in development or early production; and (3) key acquisition reform initiatives and program concurrency. To develop the observations in this report, GAO analyzed cost, schedule, and quantity data from DOD's December 2014 Selected Acquisition Reports. GAO also collected data through two questionnaires to program offices on technology, design, and manufacturing knowledge; the use of knowledge-based acquisition practices; and the implementation of acquisition reforms
Author: Michael J. Sullivan Publisher: ISBN: 9781457872952 Category : Languages : en Pages : 209
Book Description
Annual assessment of Department of Defense (DOD) major weapon system acquisitions, an area on GAO's high-risk list. DOD and Congress have taken meaningful steps to improve the acquisition of major weapon systems, yet programs continue to experience cost and schedule overruns. Further, GAO has emphasized the need to sustain the implementation of acquisition reforms and for programs to complete developmental testing before beginning production, thereby avoiding concurrency and cost and schedule growth. This report includes observations on (1) the cost and schedule performance of DOD's 2015 portfolio of 79 major defense acquisition programs; (2) the knowledge attained at key junctures in the acquisition process for 43 programs that were in development or early production; and (3) key acquisition reform initiatives and program concurrency. Tables and figures. This is a print on demand report.
Author: Audrey Kurth Cronin Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0190882166 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 352
Book Description
Never have so many possessed the means to be so lethal. The diffusion of modern technology (robotics, cyber weapons, 3-D printing, autonomous systems, and artificial intelligence) to ordinary people has given them access to weapons of mass violence previously monopolized by the state. In recent years, states have attempted to stem the flow of such weapons to individuals and non-state groups, but their efforts are failing. As Audrey Kurth Cronin explains in Power to the People, what we are seeing now is an exacerbation of an age-old trend. Over the centuries, the most surprising developments in warfare have occurred because of advances in technologies combined with changes in who can use them. Indeed, accessible innovations in destructive force have long driven new patterns of political violence. When Nobel invented dynamite and Kalashnikov designed the AK-47, each inadvertently spurred terrorist and insurgent movements that killed millions and upended the international system. That history illuminates our own situation, in which emerging technologies are altering society and redistributing power. The twenty-first century "sharing economy" has already disrupted every institution, including the armed forces. New "open" technologies are transforming access to the means of violence. Just as importantly, higher-order functions that previously had been exclusively under state military control - mass mobilization, force projection, and systems integration - are being harnessed by non-state actors. Cronin closes by focusing on how to respond so that we both preserve the benefits of emerging technologies yet reduce the risks. Power, in the form of lethal technology, is flowing to the people, but the same technologies that empower can imperil global security - unless we act strategically.
Author: 
Author: United States Government US Army
Author: Jesse Ellman
Author: Irv Blickstein
Author: Rhys McCormick
Author: 
Author: United States Government Accountability Office
Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Armed Services
Author: Michael J. Sullivan
Author: Audrey Kurth Cronin